Eric and I got in two games last night out at Redcap’s. It was definitely interesting; two reasonably close games, and he brought out a lot of stuff I haven’t faced before; his Eldar list was fairly different than what has showed up at PAGE, though it’s probably more like popular online builds.
Lists
Eric fielded something like:
- 6x Seer Council w/ Farseer
- Squadron of 2 War Walkers
- Squadron of 2 War Walkers
- Wave Serpent with 10x Dire Avengers
- Wave Serpent with 10x Dire Avengers
- 6x Warp Spiders
I brought my current typical Kingbreakers setup:
- Captain Angholan (as Vulkan)
- Sternguard x5 in Drop Pod w/ Combi-Meltas
- Dreadnought in Drop Pod w/ Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer, CCW
- Dreadnought in Drop Pod w/ Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer, CCW
- Tactical Squad in Razorback w/ PF, Flamer, Lascannon
- Tactical Squad in Rhino w/ Meltagun, Missile Launcher
- Tactical Squad in Rhino w/ Flamer, Lascannon
- Landspeeder w/ Multi-Melta and Heavy Flamer
- Landspeeder w/ Multi-Melta and Heavy Flamer
As you can see, Eric sunk a lot of his points into that one Seer Council unit, I believe something like 600–700 of his 1500 points. Going in I wasn’t too worried, particularly as he just didn’t have that many models with all those points spent on the Council, but wasn’t sure what to expect having never faced an Eldar army like that.
Game 1
We rolled for Seize Ground with 5 objectives and Pitched Battle, while I took first turn.
Kingbreakers and Eldar square off around a hotly contested objective.
Unsure what exactly it could do but appropriately fearful, I dropped both Dreadnoughts as best I could on top of the Seer Council and flamed away. Without Fortune to protect them, almost the entire squad was vaporized. Eric then assaulted the Dreadnoughts; probably a mistake, but I believe this was his first time using the Council. That combat would proceed to drag on interminably until the end of the match when the Dreads finally eliminated the Farseer and remaining friends.
After that there was a lot of wheeling and dealing trying to pin down the Wave Serpents and their Dire Avengers. The Wave Serpents outfitted with Holos are very resilient! It took a good bit of work to take them down, relatively invulnerable as they are to Melta and Lascannon fire. War Walkers also put out impressive amounts of firepower, trying to knock squads off their objectives. In the end though flamers did their thing on a good number of Eldar and the Kingbreakers had enough troops around to hold onto more objectives than the sneaky Eldar.
Fresh off barbecuing some Dire Avengers in their downed Wave Serpent, a Landspeeder is ambushed by War Walkers.
Sgt Scolirus defends a critical objective.
Game 2
This time we rolled for Annihilation and Spearhead. Eric took first turn and deployed the Council and very carefully placed Wave Serpent. I deployed most of my guys and castled up, forming an impromptu Kingbreakers garrison around one of the ruins on the board.
To the walls, man the fort!
Going first enabled Eric to start castingFortune on the Seer Council and turn them into a veritable engine of unstoppable death before I could inflict any damage. For those unfamiliar, Fortune makes the Council’s 3+/4+ armor and invulnerable saves re-rollable. I poured fire into them throughout the game, to very limited effect, only managing to cripple the squad by the very end of the game. Meanwhile they flew about on their jetbikes flaming troops and spearing vehicles as the other Eldar skulked about and the War Walkers picked off stragglers. It almost came back together in the last two turns as the War Walkers were dispatched, but by then it was too late. Too many transports and Landspeeders had been lost to make up the Kill Points difference.
The Council prepares one of its many feints.
Angholan and Scolirus stare down a War Walker before charging in to destroy it.
Results
Game 1: Minor Victory for the Kingbreakers, bonus points for Kill Points and surviving HQs.
Game 2: Minor Victory for the Eldar, bonus point for controlling table quarters.
Notes
I was impressed at these Eldar units. Seer Councils I’d been wary of as Internet wisdom is definitely rightly fearful. Mathematically speaking, they’re about on par or even harder to kill than Terminators with Storm Shields, but they’re much more mobile and arguably more useful weapons. Remember that jetbikes get to move 6″ every assault phase, whether they assault or not. They also have a Str 9 spear attack that’s pretty good at taking down vehicles. I was just lucky in Game 1 that I was able to cripple the Council in the first turn. In the second game I probably shouldn’t have concentrated so much shooting into it, but it was moving too fast to lock down into assault, and I was hoping I’d eventually kill some part of it and whittle it down. No such luck.
War Walkers I thought were also pretty respectable. Fairly fragile, but while they’re alive they put out a ton of shots—8 each, Str 6. Combined with Outflanking and 36″ range, and it seems like a reasonable unit to come on later in the game and try to knock weakened troop squads off objectives, while the enemy’s shooting is already committed elsewhere.
On a related note to both, I’ve been keeping my Marines largely boxed up in their Rhinos. I think I need to again start more frequently considering having them hang out in the open so they can all shoot. Having them inside the Rhinos is protecting them, but it’s also costing them a lot of shooting opportunities.
This game I broke with my recent practice and split the Landspeeders into two distinct flyers rather than a squadron. I don’t think this really did anything very good or bad. It cost me an extra Kill Point in the second game, didn’t really affect their survivability, and gave me just a bit more freedom in the first game to split targets. All in all a wash.
Long story short though, I think this changes the Redcap’s meta-game a fair bit. Up to now I’ve been comfortably not bringing a Librarian as people have not been using many psychic abilities. Fortune has to be stopped though. I think it’d be cheesy at this point and slightly unsporting to bring out an Inquisitor ally for just his Psychic Hood, so a Librarian it is. The only question is: Where to get the 100 points? That’s a lot to knock off my list without giving up something useful. On the other hand, maybe I can play the super strategic card and figure that I don’t have to face Eric again in this round, and hope nobody else whips out some crazy psycher… Sounds risky though.
A few more photos are the Flickr gallery.